Power Being Restored To Ocean County

OCEAN COUNTY – The end of a picture perfect weekend at the Jersey Shore was marred by a major power outage that affected thousands of residents and visitors to the area.

For several hours, homes and businesses in parts of Ocean County were in the dark and without air conditioning due to a downed transmission line at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Plant in Lacey. The downed wires even sparked a small brush fire on the plant property. No one was injured.

The biggest concentration of outages occurred in Berkeley, Lacey, Waretown and Barnegat.

What also made matters worse was how many traffic signals around the shore were not functioning when beachcombers were attempting to make their trip home.

JCP&L crews were quick to pinpoint the problem and went to work shortly after the issue was detected. They continue to bring back customers in a staged restoration process.

Multiple media reports indicate all of the 24,000 customers will be back up and running tonight.

The Ocean County Sheriff’s Department urges you to not call 911 unless there’s a real emergency.

Local police ask you to proceed with caution on area roadways as traffic lights are out in a number of towns.

Jason Allentoff is the Vice President & Chief Operating Officer of Micromedia Publications/Jersey Shore Online. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in communication from Monmouth University. Before joining Micromedia in 2013, Allentoff was the morning drive news anchor for WOBM-FM/WOBM-AM and contributed reports to New Jersey 101.5.